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The Tuesday Tune 3 - Air Springs and Volume Spacers

This week on The Tuesday Tune, we have a good look at the way air springs and volume spacers interact.

7 Comments

  • + 11
 those cheeky star shaped transitions were absolutely mental
  • + 1
 Just wondering, why would someone use so many tokens to make the shock so progressive? Most of DH riders use coil spring shocks with almost linear curve (except for the end of stroke) and they are still good for agressive riding and jumping. So for what kind of riders is this setup ment to be?
  • + 4
 Most frames that are well suited to coil springs are quite progressive themselves, otherwise they're typically too easy to bottom out (or have to be run stiff in order not to). Virtually no forks have a linear spring rate as such either, because the air volume in the fork reduces substantially enough to provide quite a bit of ramp up, particularly in open bath systems like most Marzocchis, or when the end of one or both stanchions is sealed off like the pre-Charger damper Rockshox forks. Forks that have large internal volumes and no ramp up (eg coil sprung Fox 40s) are relatively easy to bottom out unless they have a hydraulic bottom out cone (which the coil sprung 40s do) or some other method of creating substantial spring or damper ramp up (eg Rockshox's Dropstop system which is in use on the Boxxer Team).

So long story short, most coil spring systems are quite a bit more progressive than they may first appear.
  • + 1
 This series is really helpful to both better understand how my suspension works and for setting it up. Thanks Steve. I'm have an analogue gauge shock pump without the degree of accuracy to adjust air volume as called for in scenario 2, which I am seeing as the ideal: what scenario am I closest to if I work on achieving 'constant sag' after inserting tokens? I suspect I just need to shell out and get a digital gauge shock pump.
  • + 1
 @VorsprungSuspension RS claims to have improved performance in terms of stiction and maintaining a consistent spring rate on extended descents but it feels negligable to me in the parking lot test, have you tossed one on the dyno yet? What are your thoughts on using a mechanical solution over pnuematic to act as the negative spring?
  • + 1
 You're referring to the new RS air shocks I presume? If so... one of the stranger design choices I've seen lately.
  • + 1
 so much good and helpful information here. thank you.
are screen shots of those graphs available?








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